Agricultural education very early on tested a generalized mandate of modular interdisciplinary education. In this regard, it constitutes an interesting medium for observing the conditions required for developing interdisciplinarity in an academic context. Based on a historical approach, this text shows how a series of experiments led to a generalized mandate of interdisciplinary education in the whole of training concerned, as well as the questions raised by this generalization. Analyzing the discrepancy between the prescription and declared or observed interdisciplinary teaching practices leads, in the conclusion, to a series of hypotheses on the obstacles encountered. [Article translated by Joachim Lépine.]